VIP
by LavenderHyde
Summary: For a suggestion on my tumblr- Shadow gets to go backstage at a 4Swords concert for the first time. Based on my Band Au.


Shadow wasn't exactly sure what to do with himself, when someone who looked strikingly like a security guard was grabbing him roughly (but not _really_ as roughly as it looked) by the arm, and leading him away from his spot in the crowd, and away from Vaati. He questioned the guard as he was pulled almost completely out of the audience area, but the man stayed totally silent until there was no one around.

When the guard finally stopped, Shadow pulled his arm away, and the guard looked down apologetically.

"What was that for!?" Shadow grunted, fixing the folds of his layered sleeves.

"Apologies. I was told to make it look like you

weren't getting special treatment."

Shadow opened his mouth to retort- and with what, he had no idea- but he stopped mid-breath.

"Special-... _treatment_?" Shadow sputtered, confused momentarily on how being forcefully dragged from the _first row_ of the audience was considered special treatment. But- his eyes widened as the guard pointed, before leading him to a completely blocked off area. The man pulled a small lanyard from his jacket pocket, handing it down to Shadow.

"Here, wear this," he said, and Shadow complied, slipping the pass around his neck. He lifted up the pass to glance at the words. V.I.P.

Wait- _V.I.P_? Shadow's eyes widened completely now, feeling as though someone had stolen the breath right from his chest. He could feel his hands shake, but he followed the guard silently. Was he imagining this? Was he getting "dragged" from the audience to be given a special viewing seat or something?

After a silent moment through what seemed like a backstage hallway, they reached a door with a label across it. It might have said something like "crew"- but it swung open so suddenly, that Shadow didn't quite have a chance to read it.

Instead, he got a face full of a tall woman, her hair pulled up in a twist of a bun on top of her head, and he recognized her immediately. She was Tetra, one of the sound managers for the 4Swords. He immediately felt his face grow hot- Tetra was almost as high status as the band members, and though she was a manager, meeting her was considered a serious privilege.

Shadow jumped in surprise when she looked at him, reaching a hand out to grab his shoulder, before turning her gaze up towards the guard.

"Oh good, you brought the right kid," she said, laughing, and the guard huffed at her, before shrugging, and turning to walk back down the hallway.

"Hurry, come in here," she said, moving her hand from Shadow's shoulder onto his back, and guiding him (or shoving him?) into the room, before closing the door behind them both. The second it shut, he could hear the music from the stage. It was muffled, but it felt heavy and close.

"We don't do this for anyone, y'know," she said to him with a sly smile, and Shadow shook himself out of his slight trance, before looking at her.

"Do… what, exactly? I'm so confused," he said embarrassedly, and Tetra simply laughed, continuing to pull him forward, until they had followed the room through a few doorways. She gestured her hand out, and Shadow finally saw the entire stage, from sideways. Blue was closest, only about 15 feet away, and Shadow could literally see how fast his fingers moved across the fretboard of his Gibson.

Green was moving all over the place; running over towards Blue, then towards the edge of the stage, then back towards Red. He was a like hurricane of a person. Red and Vio we're both the farthest, and though he couldn't quite see him, Shadow craned his body to try to get a view of Vio.

Tetra noticed this immediately, then cackled.

"I know you had a better view of him when you were in the audience, but we had to get you back here earlier, before it became too suspicious," she explained, and Shadow straightened himself to look back up to her.

"I-... I really appreciate this backstage access- like, forreal, but what is going _on_?" He asked. Tetra narrowed her eyes, keeping a thin smile on her lips.

"We want to surprise Vio."

"S-surprise _Vio_?" Shadow sputtered, placing his hands over his chest. "You're surprising _me_!"

"Well, we wanted to surprise you too, and we'll get to that later, but for now, you'll just have to wait until they finish," she said, glancing at the time on the lockscreen of her cell phone. "Which will be in like, twenty minutes."

She reached her hand out, cell phone still in hand, to point towards a seating area. There were multiple comfortable looking couches, and a table that was covered in complementaries, like water bottles, bags of chips, granola bars; the works.

"Help yourself to any of that, we've got way too many there for just the six of us. You can either chill on one of the couches, or you can stay here by the curtain to watch," she told him, waiting for him to nod, before heading off towards another area of the backstage, where there were multiple monitor and sound board setups. Shadow glanced around the corner, and he noticed that another woman was there as well- Zelda.

Whipping his head back and forth between Zelda and Tetra, and the direct view he had of the 4Swords, Shadow could finally feel all of the butterflies in his stomach. Was he dreaming this? Like- was he _really_ dreaming this? He glanced around to make sure no one else was there, before closing his eyes, and pinching hard at the back of his arm. He opened his eyes, finding he was still _there_.

Maybe all of those front row tickets he had bought over the past few years were finally adding up- or maybe it was because of that _one_ time… when he face planted on the front of the stage. Was he actually in trouble for that? He was literally the reason that they had started adding a guard rail to the front of the audience- keeping the crowd a good 8 feet away from the stage at all times.

But... Tetra had mentioned they were surprising Vio. He blinked hard, taking in that statement again. Were they trying to embarrass him? What the heck was going on?

Shadow shook his head again, looking out across the stage again, as band was finishing a song. Blue had slung his guitar over his back while wiping at his face with a small towel, while Green had laid down on the floor of the stage, his guitar set next to him, as he continued to yell through the microphone. Vio was holding his hair up off of the back of his neck, and continued to hold it there until Green had hopped back up to his feet, about to start the next song.

After a moment, Shadow noticed a buzz from his pocket, and he moved to a seat to sit down at, then pulled his phone out. He had nearly a million texts from Vaati.

 **'dude, where r u????'**

 **'are u in trouble? its bout time u get yelled at for climbing onstage, that security guy didnt look v happy'**

 **'shadow wtf answer me'**

Shadow laughed, but paused before replying. He felt bad, he had gone to the concert _with_ Vaati, but Vaati hadn't gotten backstage access too… he was afraid to tell him that he was being treated as V.I.P, as opposed to being lectured.

 **'I'll tell ya later'** , he replied quickly, then slid his phone back into his pocket. But… he pulled it back out, and stepped back towards the curtain to snap a few photos of the band. He wasn't sure if he was _technically_ allowed to do this, but no one was stopping him, so…

Shadow had moved back to sit on a normal fold out chair towards the back of the room. He didn't want to get too comfy on one of the couches, out of nervousness that someone would get upset with him. After a while of waiting, he realized that this was the first time one of the 4Swords concerts felt like it was going by at a snail's pace. Don't get it wrong, he adored every single concert he went to, and each seemed to go by _way_ too fast, but now that there was something else waiting for him at the end? He could hardly sit still.

After nearly an eternity, Zelda and Tetra ran out from the control room. Zelda headed straight towards Shadow, and Shadow immediately felt his throat knot up.

"You're Sha-... Shadow..? Yeah, Shadow, right?" She asked, a beautiful smile plastered across her face, as she held out a hand.

"Y-yeah!" He stammered, reaching out to shake hers.

"Zelda! Sorry you've been waiting her so long, they're finishing up now, if you want to come wait with us," she offered, waving her hand to where Tetra was standing near the stage exit. Shadow nodded vigorously, before standing up to follow her.

Shadow's heart started pounding like a drum in his chest as soon as he heard the band thanking and saying their goodbyes to the crowd. Blue and Green had bolted off of the stage first, play fighting over who would get off first, but Blue screeched to a halt as soon as he saw Shadow. Tetra held a finger to her lips before he had a chance to say anything, and he nodded, shooting a wink towards Shadow, then running after Green again- who hadn't seemed to notice a thing in his sprint.

Red came back next, smiling hugely, his eyes squinting, at Shadow, and taking a place next to Zelda to wait for Vio.

Now, Shadow's heart had leapt from his chest up into his throat. As soon as Vio had made it into the back room- he immediately turned to face the opposite direction from them, obliviously setting his bass up on the guitar rack.

Tetra let out a loud laugh, and Vio shot up straight, turning around to look at them.

"Tetra, what one earth is your prob-" he froze, noticing Shadow standing in between Zelda and Tetra.

"Well? What'dya think?" Zelda asked, but Vio couldn't form any words. Shadow immediately considered the negative; Oh, geez, Vio didn't want this. What if, in reality, Vio couldn't stand this weirdo who smacked his face on the stage floor, then continued to visit every single signing since?

Vio's mouth twitched, but he was suddenly pushed aside by Green.

"Hey! Hey, it's _you_!" He shouted, grabbing Vio by his sleeve and jostling him as he pointed towards Shadow. "Vio, it's that guy you couldn't stop thinking abo-!"

Vio heavy-handedly smacked his palm over Green's mouth, shutting him up immediately, though Green was still smiling hugely past it. Vio froze for another second, before cracking out a short, and _extremely_ embarrassed, laugh.

"O-oh, uh, just… Don't listen to him," he mumbled. "Sorry, I got caught off guard… Shadow, right?"

Green finally pulled away from Vio, continuing to grin even as he left to re-join Blue and Red. Shadow couldn't help his eyes growing wide at Vio mentioning _his name_. He… remembered Shadow's name.

"You come to every show and signing, I wouldn't forget your face," Vio said, practically addressing Shadow's thoughts. "Especially after… well, you know."

Shadow laughed, nodding. "Oh yeah, I know! That was a total accident, I swear!"

He noticed Tetra and Zelda sneaking away from the two when things seemed to calm, and Vio laughed in return to Shadow.

"That's alright, it's definitely one of the biggest highlights out of any of our concerts," Vio said, reaching a hand up to run his hand through his tangled hair, and Shadow had to bite his tongue to prevent himself from internally _swooning_.

The two eventually made their way over to the couches, where the other members were sprawled out at, and they all properly introduced themselves to Shadow. At this moment, if the world ended, Shadow would have been completely satisfied.

After nearly an hour of literal, personal, communication with _Vio_ , the group had to pack up to leave. Unfortunately. But, a few moments after Shadow has parted ways with Vio and the others, Zelda approached him at the exit.

"We're sorry we couldn't get your friend back here as well, but these are for you guys," Zelda said, handing Shadow two fancy crew member lanyards, and Shadow returned the basic one that the guard had given him. On the front of one of the new lanyards, was Shadow's name, printed in bold letters.

On the back, was a sticky note. It had a phone number scrawled on it, and it was signed in Vio's handwriting.


End file.
